i'm jim acosta. 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 8:00 p.m. in jerusalem and 9:00 p.m. in moscow. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us. we start with a new and complex chapter in u.s. and russian relation. a few hours ago donald trump release add letter received from russian president vladimir putin. the letter dated december 15th and putin writes, put it on-screen. i hope ah after you assume the position of president we will be able acting in a constructive and pragmatic manner take steps to restore the framework of

bilateral cooperation as well as bring relations to a qualitatively new level. trump calmed it "a nice letter" and agreed russian president's view. compared to a quote we heard on msnbc. reporting from trump that he said, "let it be an arms race between the u.s. and russia." that was trump's response when asked to clarify a tweet yesterday where he called on the u.s. to "greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability." bring in senior international correspondent matthew chance and pentagon correspondent brash starr. matthew, what did vladimir putin say about this letter and the suggestion of a new nuclear arms race? >> reporter: yeah. he didn't mention the letter. something that came out, the trump transition team in florida. but he talked about the possibility of a nuclear arms race. asked about an epic press conference throughout the course of the day that lasted nearly

four hours and asked about this trump tweet. he cast it to one side, downplayed it somewhat saying he dpn s didn't see anything new in what donald trump said, not anything new from what he said during the campaign. take a listen. >> translator: we are acting in full compliance. let me stress that. we are fully in compliance with awe commitments including s.t.a.r.t. iii. if someone sequelerates and speeds um the arms race, it's not us. >> so down playing that remark. but it's not altogether clear trump was talking about russia when he made those remarks either, on the twitter thing or the remarks to msnbc. in fact, the tone of the conversation between these two figures has been very positive up until this moment, throughout the campaign and since ehe was elected president as well. the letter emphasizes that, talking about how they want to bring the level of collaboration

on the international scene to a qualitatively new level. what putin wants from this new government of donald trump, and the new white house in the united states. and really, they've got high expect aceace -- expectations, contrasts starkly with the way putin sees the obama presidency, outgoing president, and talked in scathing tee ining terms say democrats lost the presidency, and the house and congress. he had his scales on the hacking scandal, am i to blame he jed if i responsible for everything? if you lose, you should lose with dignity. seeing a big contrast in the way putin speaks about the outgoing obama administration to the way he speaks very positively about doing a deal and working closely with donald trump. >> lard to separate the cold war rhetoric from the warm fuzzies we're seeming to hear from

president-elect trump and vladimir putin. attempting to clarify, barbara, the president-elect the twitter comments. take a listen to that. >> there are countries around the globe right now that are talking about increasing their nuclear capacity. and the united states is not going to sit back and allow that to happen without acting in kind. >> you don't see these words as any sort of escalation? >> no. absolutely not. it is him articulating how he is going to be as president. >> so barbara, you heard it there from sean spicer saying it's not an escalation but it sounds like some confined of departure from u.s. policy or ramping up of rhetoric we've been hearing from this administration? >> reporter: well, you know, mr. spicer saying it's not an escalation, but mr. trump earlier today calling it indeed an arms race, and since there's not an arms race with the russians at least right now, i'm not sure how to see it other than escalation. he may not have been talking

about, in totality nuclear arms. north korea is ramping up their arsenal, iran, china, you can bet they're all listening to this international conversation via twitter trying to figure out what it means. i think there is is a good deal of concern it is not yet clear what the trump administration means to do when they come into office, and that is a big worry, jim. >> absolutely, barbara. donald trump's tweets not only shake up a campaign, they don't do that anymore. they reverberate around the world. thank you both very much. more on this provocative rhetoric on nuke colors weapons from both president-elect donald trump and vladimir putin. from scottsdale, arizona, republican congressman, member. house armed services committee. congressman franks, president-elect trump says let it be an arms race. the quote he gave msnbc

according to msnbc. is that kind of rhetoric from the president-elect appropriate in your view? >> well i think it's important to keep in mind that the arms race has been something that has been taking place for the history of the human race. and the forces of freedom and human dignity have always had a choice. we either stand by and let the enemies of freedom prevail in that race, or we make it clear to the world that we have both the capacity and the commitment to win any arms tlas takes place, and thereby, prevent those that are enemies of freedom from entering that kind of a dynamic in the first place. >> congressman franks -- >> not only in terms of weapons also in terms of how we have philosophy. >> sure. but donald trump has not even been sworn into office. should he be starting an arms race? before he's even sworn in? >> i don't any that's whathe's

doing at all. sometimes donald trump's communications may not always be the most diplomatic or the most elegant, but he has got the principle right. it he makes it clear that america will always deal from a position of strength that we tell the world we have no designs on hurting anyone, but there is no point in trying to force any sort of a major offensive against us, because we have the capacity and the commitment to take care of ourselves, and the fact is, our nuclear armament is about 5% of our defense budget. our defense budget is about 17% of our entire federal budget and that means for one-tenth of one percent of the gdp of this country our nuclear arms capability prevented world war iii for 70 years. >> congressman franks, ask you as member of the house missile defense caucus, when vladimir putin specifically says he wants to be able to penetrate any current or future missile defense system, isn't that some kind of threat aimed at the united states and its allies?

what do you make of that? >> you know, it's ironic you'd ask that question, because the same question occurred here eight or ten years ago when we were talking about modernizing our space capabilities, and there were those who said, oh, no. we don't want to weaponize space. opponents proceeded to do exactly that. now there is a grave deficit in some of these areas. the hypersonic glide vehicles that russia's developing would, indeed, make some of our most advanced missile defense capabilities obsolete and it's important we stay on top of that, because again, we have two choices. we either stand by and let the opponents of freedom prevail which is not good for anyone on earth, or as the unipolar superpower of the world we make it clear our ends and hearts are good towards anyone, we have no anger, hatred or wish to conquer anyone, but that we will stand and we have will an arsenal of fleem will presflal any circumstance and i think that's what donald trump is trying to

do. >> sure. congressman, the letter vladimir putin sent to donald trump, i wanted your take on it. calling for collaboration between the kremlin and the white house. this is an extraordinary letter, obviously. trump says he likes the sentiment and hopes that they stay on the same page. do you think donald trump will be tough enough with vladimir putin? >> well, i think the contrast between donald trump and barack obama is pro found beyond my ability to articulate. vladimir putin has proceeded to mock the world up with barack obama, and we are a weaker nation because barack obama was president of the united states and have been it for a very long time and i think vladimir putin recognizes a very different man in the white house, or going to be soon and he has to readjust his trajectory. >> absolutely true. very true, sir. thank you very much. congressman trent franks joining us from arizona. >> thank you. >> happy holidays, sir. merry christmas. >> merry christmas to you, sir. >> thank you.

now to the end of the manhunt for the man that police believe slammed his truck into a crowd of people at a berlin christmas market. the manhunt ended on it's streets just just outside's milan, italy, shot and killed by police. german authorities, moil, still on high alert looking for new accomplices. this video showing him pledging allegiance to isis and abou bakar baghdadi. and now cnn terrorist analysts, nina, tall, italians this was an accident how he was kaushg caught. take us through what happened? >> reporter: outside the spot he was actually gunned down here, 3:00 a.m. in the morning. just behind me on the tarmac, look closely, you can still see his blood. he turned up in a, has to be

said, rather industrial neighborhood, northeastern part of milan, essentially a satellite town to italy's northern biggest city. and stopped for a random i.d. check. itted to present papers instead pulled out of a caliber pistol and immediately began firing. one was shot and remains in the hospital. the other one drew his gun and shot and within minutes anis rahm amri was dead. he has travelled over different countries in the past years, cross-checked firntprints and found they were the same as the one on the driving steering wheel of the truck that plowed into those pedestrians at the berlin christmas market. as you moengs entioned, isis ca with a video appeared to show him pledging allegiance to the leader al baghdadi and saying it was indeed him killed here

overnight. in a very random location, just outside a train station a couple miles outside of milan. why did he come back to italy? where hi story began? is it where his radicalization ended, and what does that mean for authorities who continue to investigate. >> what have you learned, paul? >> he was added to the so-called danger list in march of this year. that's a list which is maintained by german security services for people that they consider dangerous who are islamists or suspected terrorists. right now there are about 549 names on that list, and you are generally added to the list if they don't have enough information to launch arrests, but are considered very dangerous nonetheless.

so they were well-aware that he posed a risk, well-aware, because they had a police informant in the network he belonged to, spent a lot of time with him, according to court documents and investigative files obtained by cnn. >> nina, what are authorities now looking for down there? do they think there are more accomplices? where's the investigation stand on that? >> reporter: they're looking at the very curious circumstance that, in fact, where i'm standing in the center, in this small town north of milan is only the town next door to where the truck loaded up and left from with the polish driver. a significant point of the investigation. although police here are quick to point out milan is a rather small place and so the distances aren't huge. it could be that's just a coincidence. one of the things they're looking for is, did this man have any accomplices?

we know he was alone when apprehended and shot. only had a small amount of local currency in his backpack and didn't have seems as the moment, i.d. papers or a cell phone. who did he know italy? did he come back here? because this is where his journey began. those are the questions they'll be asking and also how he managed to move from berlin in germany, through the train system. so significant public risk to people on public transport. seems as though he may have been armed and dangerous at the time, through frabs and northwestern italy to the central station in milan and we still don't know the final part of his journey, jim. how did he get to this suburb? northern eastern milan is a question police still haven't answered. >> essential question. thank you both. and coming up, russian president vladimir putin taking a last swipe at president obama before he leaves office. his comments, next. first kid

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a warm letter from the kremlin, nuclear tweets fwop topics involving two of the most influential people in the world. president -elect trump and russian president vladimir putin. with me, my guests, and a politics reporter for "the daily beast" and susan page, washington bureau chief for "usa today." bobby, begin with you. donald trump said today he had a very nice color from vladimir putin. not everybody can claim that. talking about the importance of

relations between the two countries. yet in the last 48 hours the messages between the two about nuclear arms seems, seem almost ominous. it's sort of hard to separate the cold war rhetoric from the warm fuzzies. what do you think is going on here? >> i like that expression, warm fuzz is. it was certainly a chummy letter. you point out, both sides are talking about nuclear armament, president-elect saying he wants to see more nukes and talks about arms race. not talking about russia who exactly is this race with? there's nobody else even close. putin seems to brush that aside by saying, if there's going to be a race it's not going to be us. i think he learned a lesson from the collapse of the soviet union, something he regarded as a disaster, remember. because the soviet union, one of the major reasons for its collapse tshs got into an arms race with the united states. that was not sustainable. that its economy could not sustain. he's saying now we will never spend more money than we can afford to, but he's warning,

look, we've sort of upgraded our missiles. we've upgraded our ammunition, and our nuclear weapons basically saying we're ready to go. that we're capable of defending ourselves. i think the expression he used, he didn't say the united states, but against any aggressor. there again, the question, if not talking about the u.s. who is the other aggressor? >> and marsh sharks you'you've saying a call for an arms race, it's not us. why the differing messages? could some of donald trump's rhetoric about what is needed right now to check putin? >> no. i don't think donald trump's rhetoric is what's needed right now, because he doesn't seem to understand what's needed right now. it would be very difficult to imagine he just sort of accidentally happens to say it. i mean, this is escalating rhetoric. i don't think he understands it. putin, during his press

conference, very much behaved like king of the world. feels like he won the american election. he chided democrats for being sore losers. he praised donald trump and he spoke very extensively both yesterday and today about russia's defense capabilities. he's drawing a distinction between potential aggressors, not at the moment viewing the united states as an aggressive. what he said, russia is well defended against potential aggressors, and at the same time, while saying if it's an arms race it's nos us, he also says russia is forced to keep up with american capabilities. reit eerated this several times during his press conference basically saying much of russia's defense development over the last 15 years has been forced by the united states. so he's having it both ways which is not unusual for putin at all. >> and betsy, trump you know, as usual, tweeting about things that much of the world wishes he

would not tweet about. what do you make of this? during the campaign, he controlled the news cycle, by tweeting. now it's a different stage. it's the world stage. >> what stood out to me about his tweets yesterday is how much they alarmed nuclear nonproliferation experts. remember, a lot of tweets trump sends out aren't necessarily tied to policy. his team can walk them back, say we just need additional context. when talking about nuclear proliferation, tone is everything. we're not using these weapons. right? the way we talk about them is the reason they're so significant. so the folks i was speaking with particularly said, look, most presidents-elect are not nuclear policy weapons. right? don't come into the office knowing about the nuclear triad and the way they work but learn about it and keep their head down until they know what thir talking about. trump's tweet indicates that may not necessarily be the case with him. >> susan, you worked in washington for some time now and have seen presidential transitions come and go. on a scale of one to ten, i

mean, where are we right now with donald trump tweeting about nuclear weapons, nuclear arms, talking about an arms race in the middle of a transition ferd? >> this is theicsth president i've covered the transin to. two things that are unusual, maybe unprecedented what we're seeing these days. one is, he's talking about foreign policy decisions before inaugurated. traditionally, president-elect's said, one commander in chief at a time. i'll address these issues when i'm in the white house. that's not the path donald trump has chose ton use and secondedly doing them in 140-character bursts. something saying strengthen and expand our nuclear arsenal and there's no follow-up question. there's no policy paper that says -- >> no press conference. >> there's no press conference that says, he's just endorsing the policy president obama pursued. the modernization policy pursuing since 2010 or this is a major reversal of a generation of american policy. we don't actually know. in both ways it's something we've never seen before. >> bobby, in putin's speech at

that press conference, he took a shot at the obama administration and the democrats saying they're dividing the nation unlike past presidents like fdr who brought the country together during world war ii. you tichnormally see somebody l donald trump taking a victory lap but unusual for the russian president to be taking almost a victory lap there in moscow? >> you correctly point out. he's behaving as if he won the election. in a certain sense, he did. showing rhys grasp of the minutia of american politics and history quoting figgers from american his thinhistory. this is the strutting peacock on his stage, telling his audience at home, look how much i know and how much the world defers to me. look how i control the levers. a thought to me watching it unfold is since donald trump trusts this man so much and has such admiration for him and perhaps it's possible we'll see

these hours-long press conferences from donald trump once a year. that is a, a scary thought, but something that popped into my head. who knows? >> and masha, let me ask you about vladimir putin and this posture we're seeing today. i mean, this letter that came from the russian president to donald trump is just xroid ne . extraordinary. do you think put is interested in repairing relations or is he playing mr. trump? >> i don't think see extraordinary about this letter. it's a happy holidays card also with a -- >> a lot warmer than any correspondence between president obama and vladimir putin? >> really? are we sure there were never any holiday cards? you know, i'm not convinced this is an extraordinary letter. what i think is extraordinary is donald trump issue as statement about it. and sort of patting himself on the back, forgetting happy

holidays card from vladimir putin. i think putin is a little bit conflicted on what to do about donald trump. because on the one hand i think he certainly doesn't want to see hillary clinton become president. and he certainly wants sanctions, u.s. sanctions against russia lifted. on the other hoond, i don't think his policies are is a steinable without having the u.s. as the scary monster that russia is constantly at war with, because his popularity depends on being able to mobilize the population against an imaginary enemy. he's really facing a conflict and i think that trump's tweets about nuclear arms are actually very handy in being able to maintain the tension that putin really needs. >> okay. bobby, mash acha, thank you ver much. susan and betsy stick around. up next, attacks on son

eric. to trump's resort in florida right after this with all the details.

president-elect donald trump hit the golf course down the road from his 234florida resort. playing alongside him, none other than tiger woods. at trump's mar-a-lago resort in palm beach where the president-elect is spending the christmas holiday. boris, is this keeping the presidency out of on the rough? >> reporter: certainly hoping to, jim. from what we understand the president-elect traveled to that golf course a few hours ago and is expected back here at mar-a-lago any minute. we didn't have much action to

him as he was playing and can't tell what you pointers he was giving tiger woods on his golf game, but as i said, he's expected back any minute for high-level meeting we're told by the transition team. not exactly sure who he's meeting with or if we might expect some christmas announcements in terms of who he might be appointing to his cabinet, but we will be keeping an eye on that, jim. >> a letter from vladimir putin and golf with tiger woods. quite a day. boris before the president-elect went golfing he fired off tweets over his son eric's decision to end money raising for miss charity. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: yes. he sent out the streak of tweets you mentioned dating back to yesterday. the latest ones were about the eric trump foundation and how his son had ultimately decided to stop raising money for the foundation, because of the potential for conflicts of interest to cloud a potential role for him in the trump

administration. i want to read the tweets to you now. he starts saying, my wonderful son eric will no longer be allowed to raise money for children with cancer, because of a possible conflict of interest with my presidency. isn't this a ridiculous shame? he loves these kids, has raised millionsing of dollars for them and now must stop. wrong answer. of course, this comes as there were criticism, a couple weeks ago, about ivanka trump potentially auctioning off some coffee time with her new york or washington, d.c. for charity nap plan was eventually scrapped. of course, in the backdrop of all this, we're waiting for that announcement from donald trump. originally scheduled for december 15th in which he would outline specifically how he would separate himself from his empire to avoid potential conflicts of interest. o ultimately the team pushed that back into january. >> they certainly did. appreciate it.

thanks. bringing in my panel. susan page, "usa today," washington buf oh chief and betsy woodrow, for "the daily beast." and nothing in our stocks for the weekend with donald trump. ask you about the tweets, talking about eric trump and calling it a suspension of fund-raising operations at his charitable foundation raising money for the st. jude's children's hospital, does amazing work as well as other children's hospitals around the country. donald trump tweeted that it is terrible that this shapp iis ha. this is horrible. doesn't he have a point to some extent that now his son is not able to raise this money for these kids? >> he'll have a continuing problem, continuing issues over the line between his family's interests and the country's interest and where there might be a conflict between them. we had a poll out showing a majority of americans say donald trump has not done enough to separate his interests, his family's interests, from those are the country's interest including one out of five trump

voters. something i think some concern, not the biggest concern on people's minds, one of the things that alarmed some people about president-elect trump. there are things you can do as the child of a business leader that raise no questions. give you admiration like raising money for st. jude's, but it raises questions when raising money from people with interests before the government and your father's the president. >> adjustments donald, we think will have to make to be president of the united states. how's it going so far, would you say, betsy? >> a little rocky. the fact he's suggesting these accusations of potential conflicts of interest are midguided or spurious. estranged. he spent the entire campaign saying the clinton foundation that does great work was a terrible, criminal enterprise. god forbid we have perception of conflicts of interests, meanwhile the idea that his son won't be able to be engaved in this kind of fund-raising, necessarily involving access and relationships is something that

troubles him. this is a problem or issues presidents have will to deal with for decades. a memo justice scalia wrote heading the just it department of office of legal council to the ford white house. you have to be carol of conflicts of interest. even though you aren't bound by the same legislative rules they lie to white house employees, the perception you're acting in your own interests rather than in the interests of the country can deeply undermine and hurt you. it's up to trump to take them seriously but they're rl very real. >> talk about other tweets about arms services and department budgeting, talking about fighter jets ordered by the government from lockheed martin, f-35. donald trump tweeted he's asked boeing to price out a comparable f-18 super hornet and it is true that the lockheed martin f-35 is way over budget. it's something like almost $400

billion over budget. this is a huge source of revenue for that defense contractor, but a couple of problems in that the f-35 and f-18 are different aircraft. one is stealth. f-35 stealth. f-18 does not have stealth capabilities. should donald trump be negotiating in public with these defense contractors? he does have a point to be made here about defense contract work here in washington. >> so there is this procurement process the pentagon usually follows in buying new weapons systems, and this goes right past it. right? to suggest that he'll deal with it and suggest to another manufacture they come up with some alternative. you know, maybe -- one reason donald trump got elected, he promised to shake things up. people think there are things about washington that don't work right, one is waste, abuse, this might be one, but it's a complicated enterprise to address in a tweet. >> yes. but i also think about some of

the voters we met out there on the campaign trail that many of us in the press just completely missed. people who are maybe reagan democrats, people who go to work every day and in jeans and construction boots, sitting, maybe at the end the day, the week, saying, thank you donald trump, going after the big fat cats in washington and telling them to cut it out. isn't there something to be said for that? >> without a doubt. trump targeting defense contractors, brand new territory for republicans. republicans are fond typically talking about waste, fraud and abuse at the government as long as it's not at the pentagon. these companies have been sacred cows, so close to republican foreign policy infrastructure. the fact trump is going after boeing and lockheed martin is a big change, significant. i think that's suggesting some of the basic ways that sort of policy and influence work in washington, well, i mean, we knew this already, will change dramatically under him. >> go back to donald trump playing golf with tiger woods

why not, right? it's almost christmas bp give us something to wsork with here. in the past, picked it up last night, he has been critical of president obama playing golf. president obama is in hawaii presumably playing a lot of golf. i heard out on the campaign trail all the frim donald trump, president obama play too much golf and at one point slammed president obama for playing more golf than tiger woods, he once said. irony here? what do you make of this? >> yes. i think so. we can answer yes to that question. this isn't the first time that trump made an extremely radical departure from his campaign trail line. of course, also turns out he's not locking up hillary clinton. another broken promise. enjoying his free time instead of getting down to business is, yeah. inki inconsistenty is campaign trail rhetoric is campaign trail rhetoric. self-aware of that in the

postcampaign time. eve saning, yeah i just said that because i wanted to get elected. interesting seeing, though, how quickly he's made that pivot from the trail to the president-elect. >> and not the first president to realize this. campaigning and governing are two different things. betsy, susan, thanks very much. happy holidays. merry christmas. >> and to you. coming up next, carefully watching an imminent vote over the israeli settlements. the israeli ambassador to the u.n. says the delay will not hold longer and expects the u.n. to vote this afternoon as the clock winds down republicans and even democrats urging the u.s. to veetd to the resolution. senator lindsey graham going as far as saying he will threaten to cut off funding to the u.n. if it moves forward. for the latest, warren lieberman and elyse labatt here in washington. offering unprecedented criticism

of the white house. president obama la not left office, obviously. what are the israelis saying? >> reporter: unprecedented is exactly the word. never seen criticism like this from an israel government from an american government. from an senior israeli official of work behind israel's back. this is a look how ugly the relation is, with criticism of the likes we've never seen before coming from the israel iradministration directed right at obama after indications that they wouldn't veto this draft u.n. resolution critical of israeli sensements in the west bank. again, this unprecedented statement coming from the israelis. as for the accusations somehow the u.s. colluded to put this together, palestinians say that's simply not the case. no response saying it was president obama that protected israel at the u.n. all of these

years in his time in office. >> i understand both u.s. and palestinian officials are denying these accusations. what have you learned about that? >> that's right, jim. look, it's a very explosive accusation by the israelis, and the u.s. has talked to the palestinians and to the egyptians over the last several months as this resolution was moving forward. this is not a u.s. resolution. this was an egyptian resolution they worked on with the palestinians and there have been palestinian official whose have visited here and talked to the state department, but the state department vehemently denies they colluded with the palestinians or egyptians or anybody. in fact, i'm told that the u.s. did not advertise how it would vote to anybody and didn't really know. because this text was just introduced yesterday -- wednesday night, and so there was a big scramble at the state department. secretary kerry has been working on this kind of long speech to

lay out his vision of a peace process. he was not prepared to do that yesterday. but then the egyptians put that vote on the table. secretary kerry was all set to give his speech, and then that was put on hold after the intervention of the israelis. really, a diplomatic scramble by prime minister netanyahu, not only reaching out to all of the countries on the security council, egyptian president, but also president-elect trump. warned the administration, if he could not persuade the administration to hold off on his resolution, no choice but to ask the president-elect to intervene and you saw that rare statement by a president-elect calling for the u.s. to veto that resolution. that was followed by a call between president ceci of egypt and the president-elect about the way forward. so i think in the israeli point of view, this really, while it was unprecedented for a president-elect to get involvemented, it was also a very rare move by the u.n. and

an abandonment of the core principle, to protect the u.s. at the united nations -- israel at the united nations. sorry. >> right. and i talked to one u.s. official who indicated they are not happy over at the white house. thank you very much. appreciate it. coming up, president-elect donald trump spent a lot of time out on the campaign trail talking about if he would or wouldn't use nuclear weapons. we'll run lthrough that timelin, next. but that doesn't mean we're giving up. i'm in this for me. for me. along with diet and exercise, farxiga helps lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes, lowering a1c by up to 1.2 points. do not take if allergic to farxiga. if you experience symptoms of a serious allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking and seek medical help right away. do not take farxiga if you have severe kidney problems, are on dialysis, or have bladder cancer. tell your doctor right away if you have blood or red color in your urine, or pain while you urinate.

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during his presidential campaign, donald trump talked a lot about nuclear arms but his comments weren't always consistent. >> north korea has nukes. japan has a problem with that. i mean, they have a big problem with that. maybe they would in fact be

better off if they defend themselves from -- >> a nuclear arms race -- >> you already have it chris a nuclear arms race. >> i'd be the last one to use nuclear. i'd be the last one. >> certainly not do first strike. i think that once the nuclear alternative happens, tit's over. at the same time i hahave to be prepared. >> hillary clinton wants to confront nuclear armed russia with a shooting war in syria that could very well lead us into world war iii. >> joined by former adviser to the trump campaign james woolsey. director woolsey, you just heard trump's varying opinions on nuclear arms. what kind of message does this send and what do you make of what he said apparently to msnbc earlier this morning basically opening up the possibility of a

new arms race with -- >> introducing quality, not necessarily numbers. most identify arms races with number, but i haven't heard him say anything that suggests he wants to adds numbers to the force, but he does need to improve quality, because the obama administration has let things run down in our nuclear capability for the last eight years. there's training that needs to be done. there are plenty of changes that need to be made in logistics and infrastructure and all of that has to be dealt with far more effectively than it has been under tight financial constraints the last eight years and that's extremely responsible and reasonable position to take. >> let me drill down a little bit. obviously you don't want the nation's nuclear capabilities to go into mothballs and rust out, but when the president-elect during a transition period, not

even sworn into office says to a news outlet, let it be an arms race, if you were the cia director and you watched that on national television this morning what would have been your reaction? >> you know, the russians lost the last arms race. they got to the point where they couldn't finance taking us on, and they got very worried, because we were doing ballistic missile defense work, rather vigorously, and it was one of the things i think that led to their basically winding down their side of the arms race, anyway. so i don't think i would look back at the last few years, back in the '90s, let's say, and call that a bad period. it was a period in which the russians were winding down, and effectively we won that arms race. >> and you're seeing a similar strategy you think, take shape with president-elect trump when he says, let it be an arms race?

you think that he hopes history will repeat itself, and vladimir putin will fall into a trap here? >> >> i don't know, i think that may have been more of the nature of a wisecrack emphasizing that we're not the ones who are a skeletal society from the point of view of our economy. russia doesn't do anything except pump oil and gas and build weapons and by putting some stress on them with respect to oil and gas by getting the price down and making them have to get by on let's say $140 barrel of oil instead of where they are now, i think that would be a great thing for american consumers and it would -- but it would not be a good thing for the russian planners and that doesn't bother my that much, frankly. >> we were and we were talking about this letter that vladimir putin sent to donald trump that was released by the transition.

i'm sure you saw something about it, read about it. how significant will you say that letter is and what would you say about the significance of donald trump's response to it. in the letter vladimir putin says that he hopes to have a more constructive relationship with the united states and in response the president-elect says, you know what, vladimir putin's comments are correct. it appears to me having covered the second half of the obama administration, to be a departure from the relations between the united states and russians over barack obama. >> it's fine to have cordial relation sh relationship with the russians. it depends on them. they have a history of taking over and damaging their neighbors such as ukraine, such as georgia. if they ease off on that and leave their neighbors alone we can pretty easily have very cordial relations with them. it's when they are expanding and

taking over and capturing and digesting parts of ukraine and the rest that we have a serious problem looking toward not only that activity by them but also the possibility that they would move against a nato country such as one of the baltic states. and so it's kind of up to russia whether or not they want to be dealt with in a friendly fashion by us or whether they want to challenge us by taking over their neighbors. >> and do you have any concern that perhaps vladimir putin is softening up the president-elect with all this praise and warm feelings he's expressing, softening him up for a more aggressive posture come the new year after donald trump is sworn in to office? >> i don't think this is something that our president-elect needs to worry about. you can watch what the russians do, what they say is kind of interesting, what's most important is what they do and if they -- what they do leads to

hostile approaches toward neighbors and toward us they need to realize that we may well be following teddy roosevelt's dictum of speaking softly and carrying a big stick but they don't want the stick to cause trouble for themselves and if they don't that's fine, they can actually not try to take over their neighbors and be reasonable neighbors to other states. >> all right, jim woolsey, thank you very much from that perspective. coming up, the fbi and homeland security just released a bulletin on some new isis threats. the details coming up next.

v

. the fbi and homeland security department officials are warning officials about new isis threats in the u.s. evan perez joins me now. what can you tell us about that

bull anyone bulletin? this came in a few moments ago. >> this was issued in the past hour to law enforcement agencies and private security companies that help secure churches around the country. this is in light of a posting made on some pro-isis web sites in the last couple days calling on supporters to attack churches and holiday gatherings in the united states. it included a list around the country and it reads in part "isis sympathizers continue aspirational calls for attacks on holiday gatherings including targeting churches." we've seen isis has called on its supporters to attack military targets, to attack law enforcement. what we're seeing lately is more of the type of thing we've seen this past week in berlin. attacking soft targets, christmas gatherings and that kind of thing. what we saw in nice with a truck being used to mow down people

and also in columbus, ohio. so this, again, a bulletin that's being issued by the fbi and homeland security department, out of an abundance of caution we are told there are no known specific credible threats in the united states. it's simply that time of year where the law enforcement community simply is ever vigilant for threats that can be coming this way. jim? >> not only homeland security officials but also local officials. thank you, evan perez. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 on "the situation room." the news continues after a quick break. thanks for joining us.

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hi there, i'm brooke baldwin, you're watching cnn. i want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. thank you for being with me on this friday. we are following several major headline this is afternoon, including u.s. president-elect donald trump today ramping up his language over nuclear weapons, telling nbc news "let it be an arms race" and "we will outlast them all." a short time later mr. trump sharing with the world a rather personal and interesting to say the least letter that he received last week from the president of russia, vladimir putin. we'll get to that momentarily.